near to Moyle and Newtownstewart, Ireland

The site featured one of Ulster's most famous murders. In 1860, Thomas Hartley Montgomery was an official in the local branch of the Belfast Bank. But he was soon to leave that job and join the Royal Irish Constabulary, probably through the influence of his father, who was himself a policeman. He rose to the rank of sub-Inspector and was stationed in Newtownstewart, Tyrone and it was there, on June 29, 1871 that he hacked and stabbed to death his close friend William Glass, the cashier in the Northern Bank. The motive was robbery and the means brutal. Glass was impaled from ear to ear on a filing spike.The case became an international cause celebre among criminologists because for a short time Montgomery actually led the investigation into the murder which he himself had committed. Then his financial problems became known to the police and he was
arrested and charged with the crime. Two juries disagreed on their verdicts before, at his third trial, Montgomery was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed on August 26, 1873 and was the last man to be hanged in Omagh jail. His last words were " Is hanging a painful death?" and to this day, it is said that on the summer morning of Montgomery's execution the sky over Newtownstewart turned black. More information at Link